Reaper Bones #77113 Eldritch Demon

Been making some progress on my pile of unpainted miniatures and unfinished terrain projects.

This particular project has spent time on and off my work table since I received it with the rest of the original Reaper Bones Kickstarter's backer rewards. The initial plan was to use this miniature to test a paint scheme to eventually use on its much larger cousin. That fell through when I couldn't find a way to produce a satisfactory green. I tried various combinations of base colors, highlights, and washes over the years. Nothing came out quite right until recently.

The key, it turns out, is Baby Poop.

But more on that later.

Look! He's waving hello! What's that he's saying? "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!"

The Name

"Eldritch Demon" isn't the most accurate name for this friendly fellow. "Eldritch" is fair, given its obvious Lovecraftian inspiration. "Demon" isn't really descriptive of an extraterrestrial being, though. Fortunately, there is a wealth of alternatives:

• Star-Spawn of Cthulhu
• Cthulhi
• Xothian
• Li'l Cthulhu
• Cthulhu Junior
• Baby Cthulhu

The Paint Job

The results of my previous attempts formed a dark green-brown base for me to work with. The original primer/base coat is FolkArt 869 Glass & Tile Medium with a little brown paint. That coat is buried under multiple layers of paint, washes, and failure. Couldn't complain about lack of coverage, though.

I hit the raised areas with FolkArt 527 Forest Moss. Some might question the use of a craft paint, but I had a couple of reasons:

• 527 Forest Moss is a light-to-medium green with a hint of yellow. It provides plenty of contrast with the dark green-brown base, even under a layer of wash.
• It's the one thing that worked well from previous attempts at painting this miniature.
• I'm planning on using craft paints as much as possible on the larger miniatures in my collection. This decision is driven entirely by cost - buying enough hobby paint to coat a Reaper Bones Cthulhu or - if I'm ever insane enough to attempt it – Kaladrax Reborn is well outside of my budget. If 527 Forest Moss works well on this project, it will hopefully work as well on a larger version of this project.

Check out those shoulders! Must be all that time working those wings.

Next came Secret Weapon W008 Baby Poop Wash. I purchased this stuff back on Black Friday/Cyber Monday. This is my first experience using a wash from Secret Weapon. The wash flowed smoothly straight out of the bottle, coating the whole miniature without breaking and setting into the recesses on its own. The finished glaze is glossy enough to suggest wet or slimy flesh on close inspection. The green-brown-orange color was just what I was wanting for a tentacled horror not made of ordinary matter.

The claws and bony spurs are a base of P3 Morrow White and a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade.

The tentacles and suckers are a base of Reaper 09183 Cloud Pink and a wash of Secret Weapon Dark Sepia Wash.

The eyes are a base of P3 Morrow White and a wash of Citadel Baal Red that has somehow survived years of storage.

The base was finished in my usual way:

• Paint the integral base brown so none of the Bones white plastic will show through. (The figure was glued on to the round base during assembly.)
• Brush on a layer of watered down PVA glue to the integral and round base.
• Apply sand. Allow glue to dry completely.
• Apply a mix of PVA glue, FolkArt 231 Real Brown, and water to the glued down sand. This further secures the sand to the base surface while coloring it. Allow to dry completely.
• Drybrush FolkArt 420 Linen on the sand layer. This gives the base the appearance of dry earth or wet sand.

I'm pleased at how this project turned out. I'm also happy to be able to put the finished miniature in my display case and move on. It will emerge to menace some player characters soon enough.